Elephant Breeding Center - Chitwan National Park

[Manfred M]

This is less unusual shot but shows some of the conservation work that is going on in Chitwan National Park, in Nepal. The Elephant Breeding Centre operates there in an effort to restore the wild elephant population. Breeding females are kept at the Center, but the males are the wild elephants that live in the park. This is done to ensure that the gene pool is maximized.

The females and their young offspring are led off into the jungle every day to feed there. A mahout takes the female out and her offspring heads out with her.



We were told that the youngster was three years old.

[Mike Buckley]

A mahout takes the female out and her offspring heads out with her.

I wonder if the parent-child relationship remains so intact. When I was in Africa last year observing wild herds, I noticed that the young elephants would wander from female to female to breast feed, obviously not caring about whether the milk was coming from the parent.

[Manfred M]

I wonder if the parent-child relationship remains so intact. When I was in Africa last year observing wild herds, I noticed that the young elephants would wander from female to female to breast feed, obviously not caring about whether the milk was coming from the parent.

We saw exactly the same thing in Africa. The youngsters hung around with the females and these "aunties" took care of calves that were not their own. In the breeding centre the calf stayed with its mother.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.